Tuesday, August 2, 2011

The Release of Freedom :: Part 1

Everyone is trying to be someone, but not everyone ends up being who they set out to be. We tend to learn half way through our journey that our circumstances define who we are. We are conditioned and trained to believe that what we do and say tacks onto the list of who we are becoming.

And to a certain extent, we're right. But it doesn't have to be that way.

What we do defines who we are in that moment, but what we've done or where we've been doesn't have to define us forever. You see my friends, there is hope and freedom from life's circumstances. There is restoration and there is healing from the brokenness of pain. There is redemption and empowerment towards something better, more worthwhile and meaningful.

When we sit in our guilt, our oppression, our wickedness, our shame, there is physical, emotional and spiritual stop on who we become. There is something inside our hearts that won't let us be free to experience life new and fresh. And even though our heart may long so desperately to be free, there is something that just won't release.

The Bible calls it "held by the kingdom of darkness."

For [God] has rescued us from the kingdom of darkness and transferred us into the Kingdom of his dear Son, who purchased our freedomt and forgave our sins. {Colossians 1:13} And through him God reconciledeverything to himself. [God] made peace with everything in heaven and on earth by means of Christ’s blood on the cross. This includes you who were once far away from God. You were his enemies, separated from him by your evil thoughts and actions. Yet now he has reconciled you to himself through the death of Christ in his physical body. As a result, he has brought you into his own presence, and you are holy and blameless as you stand before him without a single fault. {Colossians 20-22}

This passage brings me to tears because I do not deserve to be free. I have deliberately offended and broken the law of God almighty and yet He still sees me as perfect. He has declared me holy and blameless because He loves me that much. That is absurd. Paul, in 1 Corinthians 1:18, says that "the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God."

The very POWER of GOD is what you and I now live in. It makes absolutely no human-sense but it's true. It rattles my mind every time I sit and think about it and there are times when I doubt God's love for me. I do. But that's doesn't make it any less true.

God you are good and your love endures all things. You have declared us perfect. Will you show us that today? Us, of little faith. Will you rain down your love on our weary and doubting hearts so that we might see you again and again and again and again.